1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved wire frame support for holding a corrugated sign. More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved wire frame support of composite construction that provides an upper sign holding part, a lower portion with thicker or larger diameter stakes or legs, and a transverse bar that is reinforced for strength to receive the foot of a user during implantation of the legs into a soil mass. The upper end portion provides a pair of thinner or smaller diameter wire pins that are used to penetrate the corrugated sign.
2. General Background of the Invention
Several types of constructions have been used for holding common display signs which are used frequently in the real estate industry, for example in advertising the sale of homes. These signs can be held with a wooden support frame or holder having holes or slots therethrough for the attachment of screws and bolts. Wooden signs suffer in that they require a mallet or hammer in order to drive the support frame into the underlying soil mass. This can be time consuming, and sometimes impossible if the soil is dry and very hard. Further, it requires that the user carry around a heavy mallet or hammer in his or her possession in order to install the sign. The hammer can damage wooden part of the sign support frame, as they tend to crack after receiving repeated blows.
One particular type of sign has been patented which uses wire members of generally uniform construction (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,894,937). In the '937 patent, two longitudinally extending post members of the thin wire provide upper ends for supporting the sign and lower ends for driving into the underlying soil mass. A lower most transverse member is used for the placement of the user's foot thereon when driving the sign into the soil and an upper most transverse cross member defines a stop for limiting penetration of the longitudinal wires into the corrugated plastic sign.
The problem with wire signs of generally uniform thin wire material is that the signs are necessarily very flimsy because the wire is of a small diameter sized to fit the spaces or corrugations of the sign itself. Thus, the wire signs which are commercially available are generally very flimsy and prone to bending, breakage and the like. Further, because the wires are very light weight and flimsy they frequently bend when driving into very hard soil. In some instances, where the soil is very hard, not enough energy can be transferred through the foot of the user to the sign in order to drive it into the soil without breaking or bending the frame of the sign.
Another sign support that is of a wire construction is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,042,183 entitled “Composite Wire Stake Apparatus for Supporting Corrugated Signs”.